A wider perspective.

Ideas and analysis on money, markets and the world around us.

Gold and flying money

Flying money was the Chinese term for paper credits between merchants in the Tang dynasty, adopted by Emperor Hien-Tsung as the first example of a government paper currency. Today, economists confuse flying money with…

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US Trade deficit 2024

No one is talking about the US trade deficit in the current fiscal year, but it is likely to be another record, bringing with it new rounds of trade sanctions and protectionism. In this article, I explain why the twin…

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Gold up, $ down

Gold and silver continued to rise this week, with gold bursting through the $2000 level, and silver $25. In European trade this morning, gold was $2042, up $42 from last Friday’s close, and silver was $25.20, up 93…

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Dollar’s TWI and bond yields decline

Ahead of a possible challenge on the $2000 level, gold consolidated recent rises this week, and silver held up well. This morning in European trade, gold was $1995, up $15 from last Friday’s close, and silver was…

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Managing a crisis

This article concludes that the current downturn in bond yields is part of a continuing market manipulation by central banks in order to restore confidence in the global economic outlook. There is a long history of…

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Is gold about to take off?

The technical position for gold is looking very positive for higher prices. But technical analysis should be backed by fundamentals. To a large extent fundamentals are in the eye of the beholder, whose opinions in any…

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Healthy correction

This week, gold and silver extended their correction of October’s sharp rise. In European trade this morning, gold was $1953, down $24 from Last Friday, and silver was $22.54, down 66 cents. Comex volume in both…

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Playing into Putin’s hands - again

The Great Game of geopolitics faces a new challenge. The new hotspot is Israel and the Muslim Middle East. Ukraine is all but over, and the US is likely to abandon her to her fate — like Afghanistan. We shall have to…

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Calm before the storm

The writing of this market report was at a time of great volatility, due to it coinciding with the speech of the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The drift of it appears to be that Hezbollah will support Hamas. If…

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The future for fiat

The day of reckoning for unproductive credit is in sight. With G7 national finances spiralling out of control, debt traps are being sprung on all of them, with the sole exception of Germany. Malinvestments of the last…

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